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Nice looking wooden toy.

The Universe of Imagination Bead Maze is a version of the classic wooden child's toy, often found in playgroups and doctor's surgeries and the like. It is available from the high street shop 'Toys R Us' (it might be an 'exclusive product' in their stores, in fact) with an RRP of about £8, but is currently on sale for £6.

It's a well made, attractive toy that comes on a blonde (rubberwood?) solid wood, oval base. There are two sturdy plastic-coated wires, one a bright red 'freehand' shape and the other a blue spiral, sturdily fixed into the base. There are a number of brightly coloured wooden beads - mostly circular but some squares and triangles too - strung onto the wires that can be moved up and down the wire shapes by a baby's inquisitive fingers. The wooden base also has a circular (unbreakable) mirror inset into it to give added interest.

The toy's quite compact - about 10 inches tall and maybe a foot long - but it's a good size to sit on a table top and it doesn't occupy too much space. It's made to a high standard and comes nicely packaged in a cardboard shell - without too much plastic included in the packing components, which is nice to see. The packaging carries the usual grandiose claims that the toy will aid a child's development in all sorts of important ways (the nice dark blue cardboard packaging for the maze bears a cartoon of an Einstein-ish looking professor character, for example) but these days it's difficult to find a baby toy that doesn't claim it's going to develop your child's hand / eye co-ordination in some astounding manner, so that's all par for the course really.